"Tomorrow is going to be a good day with this current," he said.
"Where are you going?" the boy asked.
"Far out to come in when the wind shifts. I want to be out before it is light."
"I'll try to get him to work far out," the boy said. "Then if you hook something truly big we can come to your aid."
Santiago never gives up hope, but he also knows that hope sometimes takes hard work.
Let me say something about hope and the post I wrote yesterday.
There are details that I left out of the post about my son's situation yesterday. Those details (which have to do with mental illness and its effects on my family) were too personal to share, but they play an important part in the whole story. Society, the world over, does not get mental illness. That stigma is huge, and the children bullying my son are cruel symptoms of that stigma.
My frustration and hurt with the school's handling of this situation are huge. But please know that I have the utmost respect for educators. I am an educator myself. Going into a classroom every day is hard, hard work. Dealing with developing youths is hard, hard work. I've made mistakes during my teaching career. I know that. I own that. I've made assumptions about struggling students in the past, and I've been proven wrong. It's a humbling experience when that happens. But I've admitted my mistakes, and I've tried (as best I could) to correct them.
My son is part of a school district that has faced incredible challenges in the last month or so. Teachers and administrators are stretched to their limits. They're tired. Uber on guard. Uber sensitive. And they're human. Humans make mistakes.
What happened to my son was a mistake. I spent all day on the phone. I spoke with the school superintendent. Two principals. I asked difficult questions, and I didn't receive any real, substantive answers. I am not a parent making excuses for a spoiled child. I am the parent of a child who is being taunted, teased, and bullied about something he literally has no control over. Take my word on that.
I will speak to the superintendent again tomorrow. If I have to, I will speak to the principals again tomorrow. Because there are parts of this puzzle that simply make no sense to me as a rational, thinking person. And I want the school administrators to help them make sense or admit that they made a mistake. I have little hope for either of those outcomes at this point.
In the mean time, I have a son who spent a good portion of today in bed. He missed his school concert this evening. Will miss his eighth grade class trip on Friday. At the end of a really shitty school year, he has been handed more shit.
Saint Marty feels like he's been fighting a war all day. In the meantime, the trilliums are blooming in his backyard. Fragile and beautiful.
Effort outweighs outcomes, and even children notice. And knowing someone is on your side is priceless.
ReplyDeleteBig hug.
Keep going..
ReplyDeleteI am both sad and furious that Gideon is being subjected to this kind of behavior!! The world is often a cold, cruel, hateful place and it isn't like we can live anywhere else! Our first priority is to our children and making this world a better home for all of us. I am proud that Gideon has such strong advocates on his side.
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